


The Avatar and The Boy Who Fell From the Sky - Prelude: Into a New World

by SilverMoonlightInBrightNight



Series: The Avatar and The Boy Who Fell From The Sky [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Dororo (Anime 2019)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Avatar & Benders Setting, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Injury, Crossover, Dororo Characters Are Thrown into The ATLA World, Dororo is a Good Sibling, Gen, Hurt Hyakkimaru, Iroh (Avatar) is a Good Uncle, Mild Gore, One Shot, Pre-Avatar: The Last Airbender, Prologue, aang is still in the iceberg, mature for the blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:08:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26395405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverMoonlightInBrightNight/pseuds/SilverMoonlightInBrightNight
Summary: Hyakkimaru is haunted by nightmares and can't sleep. One night he has an argument with Dororo then they are suddenly sucked in by a portal and thrown into a different world.Hyakkimaru is found by Iroh who takes him because Iroh is a good person and because Zuko needs a friend. And this stranger who miraculously survived falling from the sky can't be much older than his nephew. And who is he to turn down a gift from the spirits...Dororo is found by Sokka and Katara at the south pole weeks before they find Aang.(If you don't know the show "Dororo" you might want to read the first part of the series before you start with this one, so you don't get overly confused. You don't have to, though. If you want, you can start with this one.)
Relationships: Hyakkimaru (Dororo) & Iroh (Avatar), Iroh & Zuko (Avatar), Katara & Sokka (Avatar), The Gaang (Avatar) & Dororo (Dororo)
Series: The Avatar and The Boy Who Fell From The Sky [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1907644
Kudos: 18





	The Avatar and The Boy Who Fell From the Sky - Prelude: Into a New World

**Author's Note:**

> Why did I write this?  
> Because A:TLA is my favorite cartoon and Dororo 2019 is my favorite Anime. Yes, I just threw my favorite shows of all time together.
> 
> This takes place two or three weeks before the first Episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender. In the Dororo timeline it's somewhere between Episode 13 and 14.
> 
> The warning for violence is because of the blood. There is no fighting.

# Prelude: Into A New World

**_Hyakkimaru (First Person)_ **

_The white soul which is my mama grabs the black-with-light-blue-on-the-edges soul which has a green soul hilt and thrusts it into her stomach. No! This can’t be real! This can’t be real!_

_My blind, but soul-seeing eyes widen with shock and disbelief._

_“Mama!”, I say, still in shock. The real question is something else. Why?_

To share your suffering…

To apologize…

_Stupid._

_This is nothing but stupid._

_Mama collapses on the ground._

_Her soul vanishes, disappears._

_She is dead._

I wake up and slowly sit up.

The campfire has already burned down, but the embers are still hot.

I turn my head to the small, white soul next to me.

 _Dororo_.

She is sleeping there soundly. So soundly that I don’t dare to wake her up.

Nightmares are horrible. I have them every night since _that_ day.

Mama didn’t die there. But her soul fire was so weak, she could be dead by now. But she could be alive, too.

Papa sold me to the demon gods, allowed them to take my arms, legs, eyes, ears, my nose, my voice, my skin, even my nerves and something in my back. And why? For his stupid domain! I don’t care about it. Or about the thousands of people living there.

They are only thriving because I suffer. They are living at my cost. It doesn’t matter if they know this or not. They are all guilty, from the oldest elders to the youngest children. All of them are making profit from my suffering. They can die for all I care. I hate them.

Papa wants to kill me, my younger brother wants to kill me, my mama would rather die than actually help me, Mio was murdered along with the children for whom she cared, random people try to murder me or feed me to the monster which lives in or around their village.

Humans are evil. They are worse than the demon gods. At least the demon gods don’t pretend they are good. Only humans do that. They are hypocrites, all of them.

_(But what about Dororo or Mio, or the one who raised me?)_

Dororo only follows me for the money. Why else should she stay with me?

_(Because she really loves me. She calls me Aniki!)_

_(Mio was actually good, but she is dead now. Killed by other humans.)_

_(The one who raised me really loves me. They sent me away so that I could fight the demon gods to get my body back from them.)_

_(But were they good? I don’t know.)_

Humans are awful and greedy. Too bad I’m one of them. And I’m not even a good one.

_(I’m not that bad.)_

I killed too many to be good.

_(Yes, I have done terrible things. But I’m not evil.)_

I’m a monster.

_(I’m not. I’m lost and hurt and scared and desperate.)_

_(I’m human.)_

_(A teenage boy.)_

_(A child.)_

But is that bad? Monster are evil, but they are honest unlike humans…

_(It is. Humans choose to be good or evil, most monsters are pure evil.)_

Dororo took me to the hot spring. It was really nice. The water was hot and felt pleasant. It’s a good thing, that I already got my nerves, my skin and my right leg back. And my ears, voice and nose. Food tastes much better know. I can hear important things now and I can talk if I want.

But I don’t want to talk, not now, not after _everything_. I haven’t said much since _that_ day.

The campfire warms my foot. A painful reminder, that there’s only one foot it could warm and no hands. But it also feels good. The warmth. On my single foot.

And then I’m angry again. Angry at papa, who fed me to the demons, which took everything from me, crippled me, and then he threw me away like trash. Now he wants to kill me. My papa wants to kill me.

I’m angry at my brother, too. I saved his friend’s live and now he wants to kill me, too. My own brother.

And mama? Apparently, she would rather stab herself than help me.

Before I met them, Dororo told me that your family is supposed to help you, love you and protect you.

That’s their job as your family.

I was betrayed by my own family. Thousands of strangers are more important to them than their own child. I’m just so angry. At everything. My family. The demons. And myself for being naïve enough to believe my parents and my sibling would love me, although I _knew_ someone had had to feed me to the demons. And why should the demons take the child of someone else than from the person they made the deal with.

No one wants me.

No one loves me.

Not even my own family.

I jump to my feet and growl in anger. My family should love me, but they betrayed me, crippled me and threw me away. And I was stupid enough to think they would love me. My family _betrayed_ me. My _family_!

_(It’s their job to love me! Their damn job! Those traitors!)_

Who else can love me?

_(The one who raised me. And Mio. Maybe Dororo.)_

Mio is dead, the one who raised me maybe only helped me out of pity und Dororo probably only follows me for the money.

_(Mio might be dead, but the other two really love me.)_

I storm into the forest, pick up a stick and slam it hard enough against a tree to break it, then I grab the next stick and slam it against that tree, then another stick and so on. I’m so angry, I just need to take out my anger on something.

The vibrations I create by destroying the sticks are so strong, that they reach what’s left of my arms inside the prosthetics. It feels weird, but also good. I want to feel more. With my hands. And with both of my feet. I want to see. And not just souls. I just want to be. I want to live!

I pick up a quite thick stick and slam it against the tree with all of my strength. It breaks with a loud _CRACK_!

The vibrations feel very good on my arms. I can feel. I love to feel.

So, where’s the next stick?

“Aniki? What are you doing? It’s midnight. You need to sleep. Really. You are already having dark rings around your eyes…”

I turn around. Dororo’s familiar white soul flame is standing between the trees. I drop the stick which I just picked up.

“Really? You’re hitting the trees? That won’t solve your problems. It only hurts the poor trees!”, says Dororo.

Then she goes to me, grabs my right wrist and leads me back to our camp.

“Now, lay down and sleep. It’s night, Aniki, and you need every bit of sleep you can get.”

“Hm.”

Dororo sighs, “Fine. But you know that it’s a lot better to travel and fight demons when you had a good sleep…”

That’s an argument. I lay down and try to find a good position to sleep.

It’s hard. I can still “see” with my eyes closed, so I don’t know why I should close them. The souls are everywhere. And I’m still haunted by tonight’s nightmare.

Eventually, I fall asleep…

The next morning, I wake up with a yawn. Then I roll on my back and stretch my body as far as I can, while groaning in well-being if something like that exists. But it just feels so good and I’m feeling good and I guess sleeping really helped my body to recover from the struggles (and sleepless nights) of the previous days.

I slowly rise to my feet. I inhale through my nose. What’s that smell? I sniff a few times. Food. Probably food. Roasted fish, I guess. I follow the scent to the place, where Dororo made the campfire yesterday.

It’s burning again and the air smells of roasted fish. I sit down. The fire is hot enough to warm up my face. I enjoy the warmth on my cheeks and nose. My leg gets some warmth, too. Right now, it feels nice.

_(But I wish I could feel the warmth with my hands, too, and with my other foot.)_

_(And maybe even see the fire.)_

_(Is fire something, you can see? And what about water or the air?)_

_(But I’m sure the soil is something you can see. I don’t know it for sure, though.)_

“Finally awake, Aniki? You haven’t slept this long for ages!”

The Dororo-shaped soul flame appears from behind a tree. Dororo sounds content. At least, she didn’t scold me.

I nod.

“I was able to catch some fish earlier this morning. They should be good to eat in a few minutes”, explains the child.

I nod again.

Dororo starts talking about something, but I don’t listen. Why should I? If she would tell me about rumors of demon sightings when I would listen. I am not interested in the story about how she caught our breakfast.

I just want to kill all the demons and get my body back.

_(But what shall I do, after I killed all the demons and got everything back?)_

The demons. The deal. My papa who is responsible for everything. My family that wants me dead. Life really hates me.

Just thinking about it makes me angry again. Really angry. I could kill something. A stick. A fish. Maybe a monster. A monster would be great. I really want to cut through flesh and bone, hear the last roar of the beast and smell its blood.

Dororo shoves something into my right hand. I sniff at it. It’s one of the fish.

“Here you go!”, says the kid, “Enjoy your meal.”

I take a bite. The meat is soft and juicy, but the skin is crunchy and tastes smoky. Delicious!

“Mm…”, I make.

“It’s good, huh? I hope it is! It took me _hours_ to get these two fish! But I already told you.”

I take another bite and hum in delight. Dororo continues to talk. I ignore her and keep eating.

Finally, we both finished to eat. I stand up and start walking. Dororo jumps to her feet and then runs to catch up with my pace.

“Wait! Aniki, why are you so restless?! We just finished our meal.”

“Must kill demons.”

“Who says that? We could settle down in a village, grow rice and vegetables and breed livestock! We could be happy like that. You don’t have to kill the demons, you know?”

“Kill demons, get body back!”

“But do you really need all of it? You can talk, you can hear, you can smell and taste your food and you can feel the warmth of the fire on your skin! You don’t need your arms and your other leg, you already have your prosthetics and if you can’t do something, I’ll do it for you!”

“I want my body. It’s _mine_! Can’t feel _those_!”, I growl, tapping against my left arm at the last word, “I kill demons. Get body back. Feel everything.”

Dororo sighs sadly. I huff in an annoyed manner.

Everything will be alright once I have everything back.

_(Except it won’t.)_

_(People will still hate me and try to hunt me down.)_

_(My family won’t start to love me.)_

_(And I can go without a family that can’t love me just because I was born disabled.)_

_(Well, I wasn’t born that way. They did this to me. And that’s a hundred times worse!)_

_(Your family should love you unconditionally.)_

_(That’s what Dororo told me.)_

_(That’s what her family was like.)_

_(That’s what my family should have been like…)_

_(Nothing will be alright when I get my body back.)_

_(But I would finally be able to sense this world with of my senses and live in a healthy body.)_

“Want to live”, I say.

“Huh?”, makes Dororo.

I don’t react. Instead, I just continue to walk.

The rest of the day passes by.

Nothing special happens, just the occasional monster attack.

(Sometimes, I wonder if I have a target for monsters on my back… They always seem to find me.)

This evening, Dororo makes a soup using wild vegetables. It’s… edible. Wild vegetables just don’t taste very good. They aren’t really disgusting, but I definitely prefer roasted fish, freshly plucked fruits and onigiri with dried fruits and fish inside.

But onigiri are expensive, like most food you can buy. That’s truly a shame as they must be delicious, at least they smell like they are delicious.

We don’t have a lot money, most of the time we have no money at all. And I don’t even know a lot about money. But apparently you need money to get pretty much everything, you can’t make yourself. Except someone is so generous to give it to you free.

This world is just really confusing.

And really unfair.

I fall asleep right after we finished the meal, but only to make up in the chilling night because of another nightmare.

Why do I keep getting those?

Why do I have to relive these horrors every night?

And sometimes even during the day.

I want to hit something. Hard. Really hard.

(I want to cry.)

But crying won’t help me.

It’s useless.

_(I want to be in the arms of the person who raised me and cry against their chest while being hugged, warm, comfortable until the tears dry up.)_

_(I want a family.)_

_(I want to be safe.)_

_(I want to be_ **wanted** _.)_

 _(I want to be_ **loved** _.)_

I’m really, really pissed. I want to yell and shout and beat up things. There’s only one question: Where can I find something to beat up?

I stand up and look around. My gaze falls onto a young tree. I won’t beat it up. That would be stupid. No, I will pull it out of the soil.

Slowly I walk to the young tree, then I grab it with both of my hands and pull. And pull. And pull. Pull with my entire strength.

A second later, I’m lying on back, which aches now. My arm-swords are unsheathed, my forearms are hanging on the tree. Another reason why I want my real arms. This wouldn’t have happened if I had my real arms.

“ARGH!”

I stand up again, which is a little bit more difficult without hands, but I can manage it. Then I walk back to the tree and let my arm-swords slide into the forearms. They click into place quite audible.

Fine, if I can’t pull out young trees, then I can kick the big ones.

I walk over to a massive, old tree and kick it with a good amount of force. Of course, I kick it with my right foot, the real one. This way I don’t have to worry that I shatter one of my prosthetics. It does hurt, but I’m used to walking barefoot and so my foot has gotten quite calloused within in the last months.

“Oi, Aniki! It’s past midnight. You should sleep!”

And I woke up Dororo, oh shit…

“Can’t sleep”, I say.

“Why?”, asks Dororo.

“I sleep, see things, people. Things that happened, but they’re weird. Horri- Horrible.”

Dororo sighs, “I guess you’re having nightmare then, huh?”

“Nightmare?”

“A bad dream.”

“Dream?”

“When you see and hear stuff while sleeping. They can be really weird.”

“Hm.”

“You should try to sleep”, says Dororo.

I kick the tree.

“Really, you should try it…”

I kick the tree even harder.

“Staying awake all night won’t help you. Kicking the trees won’t help neither. Nor hitting them. Nor killing the demons.”

I roar furiously.

“It will. I get my body back.”

“And then? What will you do when you have everything back? Will you kill your family? You know it’s wrong. It will only hurt you more…”

Now I growl ferociously.

“Aniki, you’re scaring me!”, whimpers Dororo.

I stumble back in shock and fall over a root, landing hard on my butt. Ouch!

“See! This is what you get from acting like a beast!”, cries Dororo, “You only hurt yourself and others!”

Then she runs away.

This is my fault. My fault that I scared her. That she’s crying. That she ran away…

I have to follow her.

_(I have to find her before the monsters do. Or a bear. Or a wolf.)_

“Dororo!”

_(Dororo, please come back! I didn’t want to scare you!)_

“No! I won’t come back, you poop-face!”, yells Dororo.

I run as fast as I can, dodging trees, following the small white flame.

“Dororo… I-I’m sorry!”

“I can’t hear you, Mr. Poop-Face!”

I reach out with one hand, grabbing her shoulder, but she pushes my hand away.

“I hate you! Go away!”

And then we fall. What’s going on?

We are falling, but there’s no wind. Just nothingness. Not even the green souls of the trees. Just me and Dororo.

One moment, she yells at me, but in the next we are falling through a void.

Suddenly, I’m hit by something hot. It feels like all of my nerves were set on fire. I cry and scream and roar in pain. Then it feels like a spark is set alight in my soul, but it doesn’t help with the pain. It hurts so much. _So much…_

Dororo is screaming like me. She probably feels the same pain. I want to help, but everything just _hurts…_

And then, Dororo isn’t here anymore. Her screams are gone. And there is wind. Lots of wind. And heat.

I’m falling for real.

I’m not hitting the ground after a second. Not after two seconds. Or three. So, I start to count.

My chances at survival decrease with every seconds. Now, it’s over a minute. I will die. I don’t want to die. All I want is to live! I cry out in horror and panic. I don’t even know when I will hit the ground. When I will die. Maybe it’s for the better. Maybe not. I whimper.

Something hits me.

Then I hit the ground and pain explodes. A million time worse than anything I’ve ever felt. Then there’s nothing…

**_Iroh (Third Person)_ **

Prince Iroh, the Dragon of The West, former crown-prince of the Fire Nation and ex-general, was enjoying a cup of tea while he was watching his nephew who was busy with his firebending training.

“That should be enough for today”, said the former general.

“No! I will continue until I have perfectionated these forms!”, yelled the banished prince, “I will need them when I face the avatar!”

Iroh sighed sadly.

There was nothing he wanted more in his live than seeing his nephew happy, but the boy was destroying himself since his father had banished him and told him that Zuko had to capture the avatar if he wanted to come back. A fool’s errand. The avatar had disappeared more than a hundred years ago. Zuko was never meant to come back.

However, the teen was convinced that his father wouldn’t have sent him on such a quest. And so, he was determined to travel the entire world to find his target.

Iroh wished his nephew would realize that his father had sent him on a fool’s errand. Sure, it would break his poor nephew’s heart, but it was necessary for the boy to accept his fate and try to find his happiness somewhere else. The banishment was probably for the best as Zuko would have never ben able to find his happiness in the Fire Nation. Not with a father like Ozai and a sister like Azula.

Their entire family was messed up. Even the mother had been unable to love both of her children equally… And Iroh’s childhood hadn’t been very good either, although he had to admit, that his father had at least been fair despite his strictness. And Azulon hadn’t favored one child other another.

“You’ll just overly exhaust yourself, Prince Zuko. Why don’t you sit down with me and drink some tea?”

“You’re disgusting, Uncle! You are lazy, fat and your slippers smell so bad, that one can smell them from the other side of the ship!”, yelled Zuko, but at least, he didn’t continue his training.

Iroh knew his nephew and he knew that Zuko was _difficult_. Zuko hadn’t been like this all his life. As a young boy, he was kind, gentle and warmhearted. This changed a bit after his mother had disappeared when he was ten. The boy had always wanted to please his father, but after his mother’s disappearance this got stronger and stronger, although he was still kindhearted and compassionate. Which had led to the Agni Kai and his banishment. An event that had scarred the boy for his life, physically and mentally.

The former general was used to being called lazy, fat and what not, so he did not react to the insults.

“Today is music night. Would you like to join us, Prince Zuko?”

“No and for the last time, I will not play the tsungi horn!”, yelled the teenager before he stormed inside the ship.

Iroh sighed again. Yes, it would be nice if his nephew would play the tsungi horn at their music night, but it wasn’t the real reason why he wanted his nephew to join the crew. He wanted the boy to interact with the crew a in friendly manner. There was no one in Zuko’s age on the ship, but at least he could socialize with the youngest crew members. Maybe even make friends with them.

The old prince stood up, just in time to see a dark hole opening in the sky. Then something fell out of the hole and started to fall down. Iroh ran to the telescope and took a look at the falling object.

It was a person. And a young one.

The next moment they crashed into a nearby forest. And the hole disappeared.

Iroh knew there was no way the poor soul could have survived a fall from such a height. But someone had to give them a proper funeral. And the ship was currently laying in a harbor. It was a small Fire Nation harbor at the coast of a recently conquered part of the Earth Kingdom.

“What a wonderful afternoon!”, said the former general, “I want to go on a walk through that lovely forest over there! I’ll be back in a few hours.”

He left the ship, but his heart stayed with his nephew. He walked through the harbor town and then into the forest. The smell of smoke, blood and burned flesh led him to what seemed like a pile of raw flesh.

Torn cloths, twisted limbs, bones sticking out of horrible gashes, torn muscles and lots, lots of blood.

Iroh was a retired general, he had seen a lot of horrible things on the battlefields, he was used to gore and guts, something he hated. But this was worse.

“O, you poor soul. I hope you’re now in the spirit world, content and happy without any pain”, murmured the old man and folded his hands to pray, “Please, spirits be kind to this poor soul. He had such a gruesome death.”

He laid a hand on what used to be the poor soul’s shoulder and stumbled back in the next moment. He had felt the muscles twitching underneath his hand. And so, Iroh took a closer look and he was truly shocked.

The clump of a person was alive. Breathing, twitching and _healing…_

Slowly, the limbs straightened out, bones disappeared into torn flesh, set themselves and started to heal. Long gashes closed, torn muscles regenerated, ripped tendons connected in front of his eyes. All of this happened very, very slowly, but it was _happening_! It was unbelievable!

The clump of a person turned into a boy who couldn’t be much older than Zuko. A boy with a pair of prosthetic arms and one prosthetic leg. They were broken but looked like they had been made by a master craftsman.

Suddenly, the boy took a hissing breath and seized. He cried out and his body started to shiver. He opened his eyes and they got bigger and bigger and bigger… until a pair glass eyes fell on the ground, then the prosthetics followed and Iroh watched in awe and horror as the poor lad grew two arms and a leg. And a pair of eyes with the color of blazing embers. Then the boy’s back arched, the skin ripped open, blood splashed, and spools emerged from the wound, they seemed to be connected by something. The connection ripped in the next moment, the spools spread over the ground and now Iroh could see that they have been held together by threads. When he looked back to the boy, he could see the boy’s spine, but then the skin closed. The kid groaned and fell unconscious again.

Now the boy looked perfectly healthy.

Iroh picked up the spools, the glass eyes and the broken prosthetics and placed them in a bag, then he picked up the boy.

The way back took him longer than expected, but he had also expected to hold a funeral, not that he would carry an injured boy back to the ship.

Lieutenant Jee ran to him.

“General, who is this person?”

“Someone I found in the forest. He was half dead, but his body healed in front of my eyes”, explained Iroh, “He will stay on the ship until he recoverd, mabe even longer. I hope that he will make friends with the prince.”

"Making friends with the angry prince... I doubt this will work. But if it works the prince might calm down a bit", said the lieutenant, then he helped Iroh carrying the boy inside the ship and into the room of their healer.

“Lieutenant Jee, please send for Healer Ji-hon!”, ordered Iroh, “The boy needs an examination and a clean-up. Then send for Seaman Yari.”

Jee nodded and left the room.

Ji-hon and Yari arrived after a few minutes.

“Healer Ji-Hon, I found this poor boy on my walk through the forest. He needs to be examined and cleaned of blood and debris”, explained Iroh, “However, his cloths are torn to shreds. Seaman Yari, you are of a similar height and build than the boy. I ask you to lend him some of your civilian cloths. He will get his own cloths at next bigger harbor. Then you can have your cloths back.”

Both did what they’ve been told.

“I will take his sword with me. Send for me if you find more weapons, Ji-hon”, said Iroh, “I will go to my chambers. If the boy isn’t injured or sick, bring him to one of the unused rooms.”

The healer nodded and Iroh left.

When he arrived at his chamber, he opened the bag in which he had put the shattered prosthetics and the other things. He looked at everything, the craftmanship was admirable, he would try to make blueprints of the prosthetics, maybe someone could make a copy of those. But then, he looked at the arms and found swords hidden inside of them.

He pulled the swords out. Well, the blades. They had no hilts or anything else, they were just bare blades. And they had several nicks and spots of rust. The boy could get new swords if he were proven to be trustworthy.

Iroh thought of his nephew. He hoped that the stranger could make friends with his nephew. They were about the same age, so maybe…

Zuko could really need a friend …

**_Katara (Third Person)_ **

Katara was practicing her waterbending when she was interrupted by her idiot-brother.

“Look, Katara! Something is wrong with the sky!”

“Argh! I really need to practice my waterbending, Sokka! I hope for your wellbeing that this isn’t one of your stupid jokes!”, yelled Katara.

“It’s not a joke, I swear! Now look!”

And Katara looked. There was a hole in the sky, hovering five meters above a snowdrift.

Then something fell out of the hole and into the snowdrift. The hole disappeared.

Katara started to run towards the snowdrift and started to dig through the snow until she found something.

Some _one_.

A child.

A child that was almost naked. It didn’t have any cloths beside a green vest

“Hey, how are you?”, asked Katara.

“’m f-f-freezing”, stuttered the child.

“Don’t worry! I’ll bring you somewhere warm!”, promised Katara.

“Th-Thank you.”

Now Sokka arrived. He stared at the child.

“That’s certainly a Fire Nation spy”, he said.

“Of course! The Fire Nation is known for sending their spies almost naked to the south pole!”, replied Katara cattily, “You think _everything_ is a Fire Nation spy! Last week you even accused a glacier of being a Fire Nation spy! A glacier! Glaciers are nothing but mountains of ice, you idiot!”

“We are in a war! We can’t be too careful!”

“However, this child will die of hypothermia if we don’t get it to the healer and you can’t stop me, Sokka!”

And with this, it was decided. Katara and Sokka carried the child to their village and brought it to the healer. The healer placed the child next the fireplace and covered it in several furs.

“You found and helped the child soon enough”, said the healer, "It will need some time, but the child should recover quickly."

“I’m so relieved”, said Katara.

The next day, they found warm cloths for the child.

“I am Katara and that idiot of a brother over there is Sokka”, told Katara the child, “And what’s your name?”

“Name’s Dororo!”, answered the kid, “Tell me, you haven’t seen my Aniki somewhere, have you?”

“Your _Aniki_?”

“My big bro.”

“There was only one hole in the sky, and you were the only one who fell through it”, said Katara.

“We were both sucked in by such a hole, but then we were separated. I hope he’s in this world, too…”

“In this world?”

“This is certainly not my and bro’s world. This place feels different. It hums.”

“It hums?”

“Yes, it does. It feels weird, but I think I can get used to it…”

“Hey Sokka, doesn’t this sound interesting? Dororo is from another world!”

“The spirit world?”, asked Sokka.

“I don’t think so…”

“Then how is it possible that Dororo speaks our language?”

“I guess, it’s just a coincidence. Our maybe my brain was rewired when I was between the worlds”, said Dororo.

“Probably.”

“Maybe you could show me around, could you?”, asked Dororo.

“Sure, why not!”, replied Katara.

“Katara, he could still be a Fire Nation spy. Or she? Nah, he looks like a he…”

Katara sighed and took Dororo’s hand.

“Let's ignore my idiot brother, let me show you our village.”

Dororo smiled happily.

**Author's Note:**

> Hyakkimaru is now a physically healthy teenager, hurray! When he was thrown into the A:TLA world all the demons died and he got everything back. This way he will have it easier.
> 
> Zuko and Hyakkimaru will become friends, but it will take some time. Both are socially awkward and Zuko is still the proud prince while Hyakki knows nothing about royalty.
> 
> Iroh will teach Hyakkimaru a lot of stuff. But no propaganda.
> 
> Dororo is a cute and lovely little gremlin. Katara and Sokka wil love her. (Although they think she's a boy, but Dororo's okay with that.)
> 
> Sokka is paranoid with Dororo as he will be with Aang. Because he's Sokka and he's the only warrior left, so he has to protect everyone.
> 
> And Katara is very motherly, because it's Katara. She had to be Sokka's mother...


End file.
